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No. 6 California Edges Out No. 7 UCLA in Pac-10 swimming action

The No. 7 UCLA Bruins (7-2, 3-2 Pac-10) were poised for a sweep of the NorCal schools after defeating No. 3 Stanford on Friday, but No. 6 California (10-0, 6-0 Pac-10) edged out the Bruins in the final event of the day, the 200 Free Relay, to give them the dual meet victory, 154.5-145.5.

During the meet, three meet records and three pool records were set as UCLA posted 10 season best marks or times. Seniors Kim Vandenberg and Paige Thompson led the Bruins in the water and on the diving board as Vandenberg won three events, and Thompson won two.

It was a Bruin sweep in the diving events as Thompson, junior Sara Clark and freshman Marisa Samaniego went 1-2-3 on both 1M and 3M on Saturday. Thompson won 1M with a score of 260.48, and broke the meet record in the 3M (old record 308.775 by UCLA's Regan Gosnell) to win with a season best score of 316.50. Clark placed second on 1M (255.67) and 3M (254.40), while Samaniego was third on both 1M (231.83) and 3M (235.65).

Vandenberg won the 200 Free (1:47.61), 200 Fly (1:58.97) and 100 Fly (54.67) and was a part of the 200 Free Relay that finished just behind Cal in the final event. Junior Katie Nelson set a new meet record in the 500 Free, swimming 4:50.37. Sophomore Chiemi Yamamoto won the 400 IM in 4:18.62, dropping over two seconds off of her season best time (4:20.65), and improved her NCAA 'B' time standard with the win. Junior Jane Imagane also had a win on Saturday as she finished first in the 1000 Free in a time of 9:58.08.

Cal won both the 200 Medley (1:41.57) in a new pool record time, and also set pool and meet records in the 200 Free Relay (1:32.15). UCLA, who finished second to Cal in a time of 1:32.62, would have also set pool and meet records had they won. Cal's Jessica Hardy also set a pool record, swimming 1:02.32 in the 100 Breast.

The Bruins will take two weeks off as they prepare for the annual Lexus Gauntlet match-up with crosstown rival USC on Saturday, Feb. 11. Diving events will begin at 11:00 am, while swim events start at 12:00 pm.